Whiting-Gershwin

1 Richard Whiting – 1891-1938 Richard Whiting Margaret Whiting Whiting was a popular song writer active in the 1920-30’s. He was born in Peoria, Illinois in 1938.He began a singing career in vaudeville and teamed with Marshall Neilan (who later became a movie producer), but the act was unsuccessful and Whiting took a job with the Remick Music Corp. He wrote for movies, the Broadway stage and in the Tin Pan Alley as part of the popular music publishing world. His daughter was the famous Margaret Whiting. Like many composers of the era Whiting wrote many songs that were considered ‘hits.’ Whiting’s first ‘hit' song was: My Ideal A partial list of his hit songs include: Some Sunday Morning Sleepy Time Gal The Japanese Sandman My Ideal Ain’t We Got Fun Louise Sleepy Time Gal (Duplicate) Honey Breezin’ Along with the Breeze Guilty She’s Funny That Way Beyond the Blue Horizon You’re an Old Smoothie Till We Meet again On the Good Ship Lollipop Hooray for Hollywood Too Marvelous for Words 2 My Ideal Written by Whiting for Maurice Chevalier & Jeanette MacDonald in Playboy of Paris in 1930 and was Margaret’s favorite song of her father. The song became a hit. It was redone and again returned to popularity in 1944 as Margaret’s first hit recording. Till We Meet Again This song was originally titled Auf Wiedersehen, and written during the First World War. The publisher, when shown the song with its German title, gave it back and said: “This is wartime, my boy”. Whiting then threw it in the waste basket and left the room. His secretary retrieved it from the basket and later the publisher Remick asked to hear it. He liked it but asked them to change the title which they did to Till We Meet Again.” Lyricist Ray Egan was present when Whiting was doodling at the piano and said, “Why not vary that doodle and put thirds in it?”, and the song was born. It was entered into a song contest and won. The song became one of the most popular during the era of the WWI. The sheet music sold over 5 million copies. 3 On the Good Ship Lollipop Whiting was asked to write a song for Shirley Temple in her first starring movie role - Bright Eyes in 1934. He couldn’t seem to get an idea for the song. Whiting’s daughter, Margaret, licking a large lollipop, came to see him. He told her to get away from him with all that sticky stuff. After he remarked about the stickiness of the lollipop an idea came to him. He thought that maybe the lollipop might be a good subject to write about. Thus he wrote one of the most famous children’s songs ever - On the Good Ship Lollipop. 4 Harry Warren Warren was born Salvatore Guaragna, to Italian immigrant parents in Brooklyn, New York on Dec. 24, 1893. He was the 11th of 12 children. His parents couldn’t afford music lessons so Warren taught himself to play a number of musical instruments including the piano and the accordion. He left school at fifteen and played his first music job as a drummer with the John Victor band. He then played with various traveling carnival shows; as a stagehand for a vaudeville theater; and as a property man and an offstage pianist at the Vitagraph Studios. Warren was in the U.S. Navy during World War I and it was during this time that he began writing songs. I Learned to Love You When I Learned My A-B-C’s was one of his first efforts. He wrote both the words and music for it. He was never published but was heard by the publishing house of Stark and Cowan and he was hired as a pianist and song plugger for the firm. Warren’s first published song (and a hit) was Rose of the Rio Grande, written in 1922 with Edgar Leslie and Ross Gorman. This was the beginning of Warren’s song writing career and with his collaboration throughout his career with numerous lyricists. Some of his other noted songs during the 1920s were I Love My Baby and my Baby Loves Me, and Where do you Worka John? He also wrote some songs for Broadway shows in the early 1930s including I Found a Million Dollar Baby in a Five-and-ten Cents Store, and You’re My Everything. After writing songs for a few minor movies between 1929 and 1933, he made Hollywood his permanent home in 1933 when he and lyricist Al Dubin were hired to write for Warner Brothers and the movie 42nd Street. In this movie were the songs Shuffle off to Buffalo and You’re Getting to be a Habit with Me. Al Dubin was the lyricist with whom Warren wrote many of his most popular songs with. They wrote some twenty musicals including the well known songs We’re in the Money, I Only Have Eyes for You, Lullaby of Broadway, (his first Oscar winner, from Gold Diggers of 1935), Lulu’s Back in Town, and September in the Rain. Warren wrote some songs with lyricist Johnny Mercer – namely Jeeper’s Creepers and You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby. He won his second Oscar for the song You’ll Never Know. From 1945 to 1952 he worked at MGM, and won his third Oscar, in partnership with Johnny Mercer for On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe, from The Harvey Girls. Other songs Warren wrote during this period were This Heart of Mine, and Friendly Star. Warren moved to Paramount in the 1950s writing scores for dramatic movies such as An Affair to Remember and Separate Tables. On his eightieth birthday he was elected to the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He died in Los Angeles on Sept. 22, 1981. Lullaby of Broadway Buttons & Bows At Last 5 On the Atchison,Topeka & Santa Fe Shuffle Off to Buffalo I’ll Get By Chattanooga Choo Choo I’ll String Along With You That’s Amore An Affair to Remember I Only Have Eyes For You You’ll Never Know I Found a Million Dollar Baby Blues n the Night Cheerful Little Earful Jeepers, Creepers By the River Sainte Marie Wyatt Earp theme You’re My Everything Rose of the Rio Grande 42nd Street September in the Rain Lullaby of Broadway Al Dubin and Harry Warren needed a song that would fit the movie they were working on. Both struggled one evening for an idea. Dubin decided that he was hungry and asked if Harry wanted something to eat. Harry was a light eater but Dubin was not. Harry couldn’t eat anything at that time due to the heat, but watched Al stow away a couple of steaks, quantities of vegetables and half a pie. Warren wrote the melody first and gave it to Dubin. Several days later Dubin had Warren come over to his house. The two argued all the time about New York vs. Hollywood and the merits of each city. Harry like N.Y. Warren, who liked L.A., continued to doodle and kept playing a sequence of notes. As Dubin paused at the doorway, hearing the patterns of notes Warren was playing he said “Give me a lead sheet of that and I’ll see if I can get something for it.” Dubin, now at his beach home, phoned Warren, “Come on down, Harry, I think I have something. Maybe we can finish this song tonight.” Upon arriving and beginning to work they resumed the old argument about which city was the better place to live, Hollywood or N.Y. Dubin handed Warren a lyric, “Come on along and listen to the lullaby of Broadway”. “This is great,” said Warren. He sat down at the piano and beginning with the phrase and he began to build a tune to fit the lyrics. In an hour they had finished. When finished They played it for Jack Warner who didn’t like it but Busby Berkeley did. Warner wanted Dubin to write new lyrics but Warren said he would write a new song but would not divorce this lyric from this melody. Jolson heard it and demanded song for his picture. “He got it,” Al said. The song won Warren his second Oscar presented to him in 1935. Warren won three Oscars - You’ll Never Know -1943, and On the A.T. & Santa Fe - 1946. 6 7 Jeepers, Creepers In the 1938 picture Going Places, of 1938 and sung by Louie Armstrong. Johnny Mercer and his wife had gone to see a movie at the Grauman’s Chinese Theater. The movie had Henry Fonda playing a farm boy. In the movie Fonda saw something unusual that impressed him and he said “Jeepers creepers,” and that just rang a little bell in Mercer’s head. He immediately wrote it down when he got out of the movie. In those days “Jeepers Creepers” was a kind of a polite way to saying "Jesus Christ”. Soon the lyric was completed. In the film, the male lead has to ride a horse (without experience on them) in a race. Armstrong (the horse’s groom) and his band are in a wagon running alongside of the horse singing this song which claims the horse. 8 September in the Rain Leo Forbstein wanted a tune ‘to sprinkle here and there’ in a picture that was in the works. It was Dubin who came up with the title.

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